


There's A Difference Between Listening and Hearing

by TwiExMachina



Series: Modern AU [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Brother Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Non-Linear Narrative
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-07-24 12:07:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7507687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwiExMachina/pseuds/TwiExMachina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Various snapshots of Dwyer and Jakob's life of brothers, adopted by Gunter, of when they first became a family, of how they continued to grow, of how some things never really changed except that they tolerated each other a bit more.</p><p>(Modern!AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's A Difference Between Listening and Hearing

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in a day! I don't know how.
> 
> I've based a lot of the hearing loss in the fic on my experience with my sister, but her situation is radically different than what's going in the fic, so things don't line up perfectly in that way. I am in no way an expert or even slightly knowledgeable on deaf issues, but it's something. It's just an idea based off a silly headcanon I came up with that I ended up developing.
> 
> I have a feeling that Gunter is important in Revelations, which I haven't played yet, so whoops, his character might suffer?

Dwyer was twelve when Gunter took him to an audiologist and they discovered that Dwyer had become deaf overnight. Not completely deaf, but deaf enough. He could hear noises, but words were a mess and mumble. Sometimes, words came through, but it wasn’t enough that he could hold a conversation, not without yelling the same sentence over and over until the blanks were filled in.

Jakob didn't seem to take it well when Gunter told him. “I thought he just didn't listen, not that he couldn't hear.” And that was all he said. Gunter adopted Jakob when he was seven, and even when he was just an angry little boy who hated the world, he was never without words.

“Jakob,” Gunter asked after three minutes of quiet. “Are you alright?”

Jakob blinked at his phone a couple of times and then, slowly, shook his head.

\---

Gunter honestly wasn't sure how he ended up adopting a child in the first place. He couldn't say it was on accident. He couldn't accidentally set up interviews and home visits, and accidentally a year later get matched with Jakob.

Well, Jakob was his foster child first. He was a problem child, with a sour attitude. Gunter couldn't blame him, considering that his parents didn't care about him at all. Apparently, the neighbors didn't even know that Jakob existed. Jakob had bounced from different foster homes, which didn't make him any less surly.

Jakob hated him, hated that Gunter didn't give any ground, made him fix his own mistakes, made him clean, made him cook. (Gunter always helped of course, but he still wanted Jakob to learn. He considered that the bare minimum of what he should do. That may have been because his first real interaction with a child was Xander, whom took it upon himself to do everything and anything expected of him from a young age.)

Jakob said he was horrible, but he was the least horrible out of everyone who had fostered him before. “And that's not a short list, mind you.”

Gunter adopted Jakob officially a year later.

\---

It was no secret that Jakob was completely enamored with Corrin. He had been surly with her exactly once, when they first met. But she was kind to him and encouraged him when he felt like he couldn’t do anything. She grew on him extraordinarily quickly.

So the fact that she liked Dwyer as well was absolutely infuriating. Dwyer was still learning how to cook and brew tea, but he was learning quickly. And he couldn’t even reach the damn counter. He had to move a stool around because he was only ten and didn’t grow yet.

“It’s as good as Jakob’s!” Corrin said.

“Wow, really? Don’t say that too loud, or Jakob will get mad.”

Jakob did hear. Jakob was mad. Jakob pulled Dwyer aside. “Dwyer. Brother.”

“Uh-oh…”

“I understand that you’re still not used to this.”

“I’ve been here five years.”

“And yet you still have trouble understanding how things work.”

“I’m allowed to be Corrin’s friend.”

“She’s humoring you. She’s thirteen. She has to say nice things about what her best, dearest friend’s little brother says to her.”

Dwyer blinked sleepily at him. “I think you’re just afraid that I’m going to be better than you and that Corrin’ll like me more.”

Jakob stared, smiled, planted his hand on Dwyer’s head, and gripped his hair. “Listen you shit, I swear to fuck—”

“ _Jakob!_ ”

\---

“So Dwyer is deaf,” Jakob said without preamble.

Felicia squealed and dropped the stone she was preparing to throw. It plopped into the water and splashed onto her shoes.

Flora blinked. “Really?”

“Forty percent word recognition. I think that qualifies as deaf.” Jakob skipped the stone across the lake.

Corrin looked up at him. “Is he okay?”

“Oh, he seems to be taking it in stride. Hasn't changed a damn bit. Behavior’s still the same. Still talks to Gunter the same way, though Gunter now writes to him. If I yell, he seems to understand most of it.”

“Um…” Felicia started, fiddling with the stone in her hand. “Is he going to get…better? Or hearing aids? Hearing aids, right, that's what you get. You can't just magic ears to work again…”

“Yes, but it’ll be a while. Appointments have been made.” Jakob felt sick with this topic. “I should drop Corrin off before she gets yelled at again.” And he turned on his heel and walked away.

Flora jogged back to him and took his elbow. “Jakob.”

“Hmm?”

“Are you okay?”

“I'm not the deaf one, now am I?”

\---

Jakob always had to yell to get Dwyer to wake up. That day, he wasn't budging and had to be shook awake. Jakob yelled, and Dwyer looked confused, kept asking him to repeat himself. Jakob's voice was sore when Gunter walked in. “He hasn't even gone through puberty yet and he's already the most lazy, damnable child you have ever seen,” Jakob complained.

Gunter picked up his keys from the bowl near the door. “If I recall, your teenagerhood still is quite aggravating.”

“Still? I am eighteen. An adult, legally speaking.”

“The ‘teen’ in your name betrays you.” Gunter sent a text to Dwyer, telling him they were going to the hospital.

“At least you can't say I'm lazy.” Dwyer shuffled his way downstairs. “And speak of the lazybones!”

Dwyer ignored him. “We're going to the hospital?” His voice was a bit louder, and he seemed to pause more, as if unsure of his own voice.

Gunter nodded.

“Okay. Can I make coffee first?”

“Yes! Please make yourself useful!” Jakob yelled from the counter while Gunter sent another text.

Dwyer frowned. “But I hate Starbucks…”

Gunter put his hand on Dwyer’s shoulder and squeezed.

“I'm getting the good stuff then. The expensive stuff. Waste your paycheck.”

“Honestly,” Jakob scoffed, as Gunter rumbled out a chuckle. Dwyer went to the car, and Jakob intercepted Gunter. “Hospital, really?”

“If it's nothing, than I'd prefer to have concrete proof.”

“I would like to tell you that WebMD might think you have brain cancer for everything that could possibly happen, it is likely not true.”

Gunter chose to ignore him. “Corrin still has homeschooling, but I think that you can teach her. Could you walk her to her house and back? She's been sporting odd bruises lately.”

Jakob scoffed, exasperated for many reasons. In the end, he focused on his car. “You walk that mop to the hospital. It's my car.”

“Oh? Are you paying for the insurance now?”

“Old man,” Jakob started, breaking off in a groan. Gunter waited for a response, shrugged, then walked out the door. Jakob stared at him before he ran outside and yelled: “There is no cure for laziness!”

\---

“Sudden hearing loss actually happens a lot,” Dwyer muttered, unsure what the volume of his voice should be. Somehow, he always ended up on the quiet end of spectrum. “They were waiting for me to get better, but I didn’t get better.”

Velouria wrinkled her nose and started to talk.

“Velouria, I can't hear you. It's all Peanuts muttering.”

Velouria scoffed and wrote down on a piece of paper. ‘so what happens now’

“Lots of tests. Hearing aids.” Dwyer shrugged. “They can’t fix it, especially since they don’t know why it happened. Whatever hearing came back is back, so now I’m just gonna get what I can.”

Velouria passed another note. ‘you’re whispering’

\---

Dwyer didn’t like his hearing aids when he first got them. His hair got tucked under the plastic if he didn’t do it right, and it felt clogged. When he talked, his voice echoed so close, and he stopped. So he didn’t wear them often.

That changed quickly. He didn’t like having to admit that he wasn’t wearing his hearing aids, because Gunter looked disappointed, and sometimes his friends were there as well and he’d have to tell them about it, and it really just wasn’t worth all that trouble.

But Jakob was another story entirely. He was obnoxious, annoying, himself. And he liked lecturing Dwyer. And he’d go on and on. So sometimes Dwyer would scratch at his hear and flip open the back of his hearing aid, popping the battery out of place. And Jakob became wordless. And that was the best Jakob.

Jakob still didn’t figure it out.

\---

Gunter adopted Dwyer when he was seven. Jakob had to have known that it was happening. Adoption didn’t happen overnight. There were interviews. But the second Dwyer entered the house, Jakob bristled. “We’re keeping him?”

“His name is Dwyer.”

“How is that spelled?”

“D-W-Y-E-R,” Dwyer responded on cue.

“I’m sorry but that nonsensical combination of letters is not and never will be a name.”

“Jakob,” Gunter scolded.

“There is only one vowel. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe you can live with one vowel.”

Gunter picked up Dwyer and carried him away. “This is your room.”

“Wow. It’s clean.”

“Yes. You have to keep it that way.”

Dwyer took his backpack and threw it on the floor.

“Barbarian,” Jakob sneered from the doorway.

“Take a look around,” Gunter said, then left the room, easing Jakob out into the hallway. “Jakob, you are behaving like a toddler. You are a teenager now. You are thirteen. Dwyer is seven.”

“I don’t want him here.”

“Jakob.”

“Why do you even need another child? Adopt Corrin if you want someone else. She’s here enough.”

“Corrin comes here for private schooling. Garon is paying me to tutor her.”

“This doesn’t change anything.”

“Jakob, you’re not being replaced.”

Jakob scoffed about five times. “I’m not concerned about that! The nerve!” Jakob walked into the kitchen and began making the most aggressive pot of tea he made in his life. 

\---

Jakob was going to college. The same college as Corrin. Dwyer wondered if he was waiting for that moment so he could go to college with her. They had a three year difference. But college was weird. It didn’t seem to matter when you went, what age you were. Corrin had waited a year after school ended, after everything settled down with the custody shifting to Xander and birth family stuff, but she was eager to go to Shirasagi University with Jakob.

And so their family stood, Jakob with his car filled with suitcases, leaving until midterm break. “Well,” Jakob started.

“Take care of yourself,” Gunter said.

“I always do, old man.”

Dwyer shuffled up to him. “So you’re leaving, huh?”

“Yes. Yes I am.”

“It’ll be quiet now that you’re gone.”

“No, it’ll be loud, because you won’t turn off your hearing aids.”

“Huh, I guess you’re right.” Dwyer looked up at him, smirking. “What do you know?”

“You better take care of this house when I’m gone.”

“I will.”

“That old man can’t afford to get on his knees to scrub the floors anymore.”

“I know.”

“Won’t know a good cup of coffee if it bit his tongue. The age is getting to him.”

“You just can’t accept that I make the best coffee.”

“Let’s not change the subject, Dwyer. You better keep your hearing aids charged.”

“I know how to take care of my hearing aids.”

“And clean them.”

“I know how to take care of my hearing aids.”

“Keep those transmitters charged as well for when you decide to go out and have a life.”

“I know how to take care of my hearing aids.”

“Oh, and don’t forget—”

Dwyer shoved Jakob, pushed against his chest. “Just goooooo…”

\---

Dwyer didn't know he had no idea what a hearing aid actually looked like until they started going over them. He didn't realize they had gotten so tiny, just this little firefly that would tuck behind his ear. There was a tube of plastic that connected to a blob. That blob would go into his ear. They brushed his hair back and took a mold of his ear. Gunter set another appointment and then they left. Gunter passed Dwyer his phone. ‘How was that?’

“I wish it’d go by faster.”

Gunter ruffled Dwyer’s hair. Dwyer took things in stride, born to take it easy. It was a blessing right now. But Dwyer seemed more affectionate, stumbled into Gunter’s side, buried himself into his warmth.

\---

Flora and Felicia came to Jakob’s house to camp in the backyard. “It was Felicia’s idea,” Flora said, shrugging.

“I can tell. It’s absolutely asinine.”

“Corrin thought it was a good idea!” Felicia yelled from where she was trying to set up the tent.

“And if she were here, I’d say that this was a wonderful idea. But alas. She is not.”

“It’s not my fault her dad didn’t like it…” Felicia muttered.

They were silent for a moment, before the door opened. “Go back inside, Dwyer.”

“You’re not my dad.”

Flora smiled. “What do you have, Dwyer?”

“Hot chocolate.”

“Oh my God, Dwyer, it’s summer.”

“It’s smores flavored.”

Felicia was at Dwyer’s side immediately.

“I need older friends,” Jakob lamented, as if it was the fact that Dwyer was only two years younger made him desirable and not the fact that Dwyer was nice enough to bring them food.

“Can I camp with you?” Dwyer asked.

“No.”

“I’ll just sleep out here anyway,” Dwyer said, glaring at Jakob. The nerve!

Jakob threw a fit until Gunter had to come out and say that the neighbors could hear him, and to let Dwyer camp with them. Jakob pouted while Dwyer had a rather nice conversation with the twins, and continued pouting when the fireflies came out. Felicia started chasing them, and Flora followed behind her. Jakob sighed and stood, wanting to follow the conversation, and looked back at Dwyer, sitting there crosslegged. “Aren’t you going to have fun?” Jakob asked.

Dwyer shrugged. “What’s the point of catching fireflies? I can see them fine from right here.”

Jakob looked at the girls, sighed and sat back down next to Dwyer.

“What?” Dwyer asked.

“Nothing.”

“Uh-huh…”

Fireflies drifted near them, and Jakob crouched forward, reached out, and caught one in his cupped hands. Dwyer watched, unmoving. Jakob sat back down and opened his hand a bit, letting the glow emanate. Dwyer leaned towards him, staring. Jakob opened his hands and let the firefly go.

“What’s the point?” Dwyer asked.

“Who knows,” Jakob responded, then stood. When he looked over at Dwyer again, he had crawled forward and stretched his hands out towards the light.

\---

Corrin cupped her hands over Dwyer's ears. There was a sharp burst of feedback that Corrin could hear, and he tossed his hair until she let him go. “Why.”

“Just checking to see if you're wearing them.”

“I'm wearing them.” Dwyer put his head in his crossed arms. “I got over that, like the first week. I like them now. I can hear people.”

“Jakob says that you don't wear them.”

“I don’t like wearing them around him. Jakob doesn't count as a people.”

“Just because you can't hear doesn't mean that it goes the same for me!” Jakob called from the kitchen.

“I hate you!” Dwyer called back.

\---

“I can’t believe that they don’t know how to use their own hardware,” Jakob muttered, sitting back into the seat next to Dwyer.

“I can’t believe you made me go to this.”

“Azura and Shigure are preforming,” Jakob said.

“Not worth all this effort…” Dwyer muttered, playing with the receiver around his neck. The tech deck behind them was trying to hook up the Bluetooth transmitter so the audio would play directly into his hearing aid. Apparently, they never had someone come in actually use that system, and they had no clue what to do. Jakob had to help them.

Jakob was the one who figured out how to use it at home too. Dwyer remembered Jakob buried behind the television, trying to connect wires.

“What is with that idiotic look on your face?”

“Eh?”

“You’ve got this moronic smile.”

“Maybe you need glasses.”

\---

Jakob got back from college in the early morning. He walked up to Dwyer’s room and shook Dwyer awake and waited for Dwyer to put in his hearing aids before he started talking. “That’s one semester done! I’m here for a whole month. I hope you’re ready to show me all you’ve done while I’ve been gone.”

“It’s too early for this,” Dwyer said and took out his hearing aids, put them back in the charger, and buried himself under the covers.

The worst part was that he put in his hearing aids pretty much to say that.

\---

Jakob came home late after a night bar hopping and saw Dwyer on the roof. Jakob stared, sighed, and walked inside. Dwyer had removed the screen from his window. Jakob climbed out of the window and slowly walked down the roof. “Dwyer.”

Dwyer didn’t respond. Jakob sat down next to him and Dwyer turned sharply and jumped, then gripped his chest and collapsed.

“Ah, you don’t have your hearing aids in, do you?”

“I don’t have my hearing aids in.”

“Yes, that is what I said. Good to know we’ll be repeating ourselves.”

Dwyer looked up at the stars. “It’s been five years, you know.”

Jakob blinked, tapped Dwyer’s shoulder so he’d look over at him, and pointed at his ears, then held up five fingers.

“Yeah. It’s weird.” He looked back up at the stars. Jakob looked too. The Milky Way was visible, a thick belt of silver. Five years. Jakob was eighteen when Dwyer’s hearing blacked out. Now he was twenty-three, in college with Corrin, pushing his way towards a career. Dwyer was looking at colleges too now, or at least he should’ve been. It didn’t feel like it had been that long. Dwyer still seemed like the lazy kid who wouldn’t move to catch fireflies. It made something stir in Jakob’s stomach, and he wasn’t sure what that meant, how he was supposed to feel about it.

Jakob saw Dwyer shift at his side, reach up to the lights, then let his hand drop as he yawned.

Jakob tugged Dwyer’s arm. “Alright. I’m pretty sure you have school tomorrow. You haven’t graduated yet. You need your sleep.”

“You’re mothering me aren’t you? You should stop. You’re not my dad.”

“Gunter would tell you to go to bed too.” Jakob helped Dwyer stand and the two of them made their way inside.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! My tumblr is [TwiExMachina](http://twiexmachina.tumblr.com/), so feel free to visit and yell at me about anything.


End file.
